In A Galaxy S8 Near/Far/Pan Focus Away

I have had my Galaxy for about a week. In that time, I have played with the camera, quite a bit. One of my favorite features is Selective Focus. It will take a single photo and allow you to change the focus. To do this you need to select Selective Focus from the camera menu.

What happens, is that the camera simultaneously takes multiple photos and gives you these options for effect. You get an option to choose the closest item as a near focus, or the background as a far focus, or a pan focus, which puts everything in focus. The editing screen for making that selection looks like this:

So, while the feature is not exactly the same as the dual camera Portrait Mode on the iPhone 7, the flexibility of the multi-frame approach does provide creative options for the photographer.

Here are some shots with Selective Focus.

Having the option to change your mind is a convenient and useful feature. Which focus do you prefer?
Here you see that it works on the front facing camera, as well.

Do I share my focus with the Beverly Hills sign or not? I can decide that later, with Selective Focus.

Finally, it works with the front camera in low light. Craziness…

After a Spinning workout at RPM Fitness Studio

There are limitations to selective focus. The dual camera option on the iPhone 7 lets you do these things from a distance where the Galaxy S8 needs the subject to be relatively close to the phone. For most of what I do this is not a deal-breaker but it would be awesome to combine both approaches and maybe Samsung has that a in mind for the Note 8. Of course, Apple surely has some tricks up its leaves with the upcoming iPhone 8. For now, the Galaxy S8 was the best option for me to choose. What do you think?

Please note, that I wrote a majority of this blog with voice to text on my phone. I think this mobile thing is here to stay and make us even more productive.